Turkish PM fights for survival with plea for Islamists and secular judges to avoid clash

Turkey’s embattled prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched an attempt to save his political skin yesterday by seeking to lower tensions in a power struggle with the state’s secular establishment that threatens to split the country, close his party and oust him from office.

After days of simmering government anger, Erdogan pleaded with his supporters and Turkey’s most senior judges to avoid a “clash of powers” following a ruling that overturned a law allowing female university students to wear the Islamic headscarf.